News
Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2002
2003
Bush Budget Proposal for DEA
Will Help Fight Drugs and Terrorism,
DEA Administrator Hutchinson Says
Asa Hutchinson, Administrator
of the Drug Enforcement Administration, today said that President Bush's
budget proposal for FY 2003, would give the DEA "not only the money
needed to fight drug abuse and drug trafficking, but would also help break
the historic link between drugs, violence and terrorism."
According to the
President's proposal, the DEA would receive a total of $1.7 billion for
Fiscal Year 2003, representing a six percent increase over its FY 2002
budget.
But over and above
the six percent increase, the Administrator said, will be more than $50
million to augment the DEA's contribution to the war on terrorism. The
proposed budget for the Attorney General's Counterterrorism Fund contains
$35 million to support the Special Operations Division, an interagency
group that is spearheaded by the DEA. This additional money will pay for
the cost of providing intelligence support to the FBI and other agencies
conducting counterterrorism activities.
The Administration
budget also includes $17.4 million that was redirected from resources
available to the DEA and are being requested to implement an Afghanistan
initiative, Operation Containment, which will attack heroin trafficking
organizations in Central Asia.
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia |
Hamas |
"Historically,
armed groups have used illegal drug profits to fund their terrorist activities
and to enforce control over the local population," Mr. Hutchinson
said. "That's true in Colombia, where the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC) raises funds from the drug trade to purchase weapons
and finance attacks on the local population; and it's true in the Middle
East, where terrorist groups, such as the Palestinian group Hamas and
the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, are involved in aspects of the drug trade
to finance their terrorist activities. Above all, it has been true in
Central Asia, where the Taliban, which controlled opium production and
directly taxed the drug trade, opened its doors to Osama Bin Laden and
the al Qaeda organization. These new monies should give us a big boost
in our efforts to sever the link between drug trafficking and terrorism."
Taliban |
Enhancements to the
DEA's own FY 2003 budget include the following initiatives, which will
cost approximately $53 million:
- $18 million to
upgrade security measures for DEA employees within the United States
and in foreign countries;
- $6.7 million and
23 positions to improve the security of DEA's computerized information
and to prevent hackers from accessing DEA's data;
- $4.1 million and
27 positions to improve the tracking drug traffickers' money, especially
the money of those drug organizations that finance terrorist activities
and violence; and
- $24.6 million
and 133 positions to strengthen enforcement capabilities to prevent,
detect and investigate the diversion of controlled substances, particularly
OxyContin.
For further information
please call the Office of Public Affairs at 202-307-7977.
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